Oliver Gottlieb has more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, working with both engineering and operations.
Oliver works globally within front-end and process engineering, consulting customers as a subject matter expert on small molecules, oral solid dosage (OSD), formulation, solids handling, containment, and chemical active pharmaceutical ingredients/synthesis processes.
Oliver Gottlieb has a master’s degree in chemical and process engineering from the University of Karlsruhe / Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. He is an experienced project manager and handles customer relationships and projects, from business concept ideas and planning to execution. This includes: budgets, resources, commissioning, technology transfer, and the qualification and validation of single plants or units up to full production suites.
The industry needs to work closely together to make things easier to achieve and understand.
What is your view on the industry?
“The industry faces increasingly stringent demands from the authorities. It also, simultaneously, requires a more risk-based, patient and operator safe pragmatic approach for the future life cycle of products to suceed. As the technology rapidly advances, the industry needs to work closely together to make things easier to achieve and understand. Streamlining demands from the FDA, EMA, PICS and so on should be a common goal to make it quicker and simpler to move from idea to market, especially with mutually recognised approvals of products and production sites.”
Why work in this industry?
"Pharma solids are special because they do not flow as easily as fluids and when they become airborne, they become a safety concern. This adds a whole new technological dimension to handling and processing materials under GMP. When pharma solids combine with biological drugs such as antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), manufacturers need to combine the ‘alpha, omega and everything in between’, pushing the boundaries of pharmaceutical engineering.
On another note, I have daily contact with very competent and knowledgeable people from all over the world. This includes our customers in pharmaceutical companies, suppliers of raw materials and equipment, as well as regulatory bodies. I believe the multitude of different projects, the variety of tasks, and all the challenges we face make the pharma and biotech industry one of the most fun and interesting places to work as an engineer. Innovation (and optimisation through innovation) motivates me. Developing an idea or business case into a final product can be challenging, but it is also inspiring from both a business, engineering and process perspective. Plus, helping to get vital medicine that can cure diseases to market is very satisfying."
